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Daily industrial news and top headlines for plant and maintenance managers

WARSAW, Ind. (AP) — A company that provides finish coatings for automotive wheels plans to expand its operations in northern Indiana and hire dozens of more workers.
Winona PVD Coatings announced Wednesday that it would spend about $9 million on new equipment for its Warsaw plant, where it now has about 35 workers.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour says he's spending several days in California "chasing jobs" and calling on companies that have investments in his home state.
Barbour told The Associated Press in a phone interview Tuesday from California that he had already visited executives from KiOR, which is building refineries in Mississippi to convert timber products to a crude oil substitute.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Shawnee County coroner says an employee at the Goodyear plant in Topeka who died Tuesday had heart-related problems that contributed to his death.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reported that the worker was identified as 45-year-old Darrell Wayne Davis of Netawaka.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — The union representing about 230 workers at a key southern Illinois plant that makes nuclear fuel has reached a tentative three-year deal with the company that locked them out more than a year ago in Superman's adoptive hometown, both sides confirmed Wednesday.
Terms of the deal involving Honeywell's Metropolis plant were not released, pending a vote by the union's members after bargainers first resolve how to transition the workers back to their jobs at the nation's only plant that begins refining uranium for eventual use in nuclear power plants.

NEW YORK (AP) — Ballard Power Systems said Tuesday that Plug Power Inc. committed to buy at least 3,250 of Ballard's fuel-cell stacks to power forklift trucks.
The deal was made under an existing agreement between the companies that runs through 2014.
Plug Power said some companies such as Kroger Co.

METROPOLIS, Ill. (AP) — A labor dispute that's dragged on for more than a year at a southern Illinois plant that makes nuclear fuel may soon be over.
Honeywell and the union representing about 230 locked-out workers at the uranium-conversion plant say both sides have reached a tentative agreement on a three-year deal.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — An employee at the Goodyear plant in Topeka has died after collapsing while at work.
Authorities say 45-year-old Darrell Wayne Davis of Netawaka died Tuesday after being taken from the plant.
WIBW reports that some of Davis' co-workers say he was not feeling well and took a break.

NEW YORK (AP) — For the first time since the Great Recession, more Americans are buying Harleys.
Harley-Davidson Inc.'s U.S. sales rose almost 8 percent and its profit more than doubled in the second quarter, the first time since the end of 2006 that domestic sales have increased for the motorcycle maker.

DETROIT (AP) — Ford Motor Co. is recalling more than 20,000 pickup trucks and SUVs because a defective switch can cause the turn signal, tail lights and brake lights to fail.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Wednesday on its website that the recall affects certain 2004 through 2011 Ranger pickups, 2002 through 2005 Excursion SUVs, and 2002 through 2007 F-250, 350, 450 and 550 trucks.

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — American Airlines is buying at least 460 new planes over the next five years in what it calls the biggest airline order in history. And in a victory for Airbus, it's splitting the work between the European plane maker and Boeing.
American said Wednesday it will buy 260 planes from Airbus and 200 from Boeing Co.

HERSHEY, Pa. (AP) — The Hershey Co. is selling off part of its original chocolate plant at the sweet price of nearly $58 million.
The Patriot-News of Harrisburg reported Monday that the company wants to sell a part of the century-old building that's being used for office space.

MOREHEAD CITY, N.C. (AP) — Plans for a $95 million sulfur processing plant at the port in Morehead City, N.C. is drawing fire from some coastal-area residents who have scheduled a meeting to discuss details of the project.
The meeting is scheduled for Tuesday at the Crystal Coast Civic Center.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A former Michigan governor is in North Carolina to plug electric cars and job creation from clean energy.
Ex-governor Jennifer Granholm speaks in Raleigh on Tuesday at the start of a four-day conference for the electric car industry. Granholm is now an adviser to the Pew Charitable Trusts and she'll be visiting the Plug-in 2011 convention.

HENDERSON, N.C. (AP) — A small North Carolina company with big backers plans to build a solar cell manufacturing plant employing more than 250 people after getting a promise of up to $18 million of tax breaks and other incentives.
Gov. Bev Perdue's office on Tuesday announced Durham-based Semprius Inc.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn violated the union contract with 30,000 state workers by refusing to give them a pay raise due July 1, an arbitrator ruled Tuesday.
Edwin Benn ordered Quinn to start paying the 2 percent increase and provide back pay within 30 days.
"As a matter of contract, the state cannot simply refuse to pay the increase," Benn wrote in his opinion.

DETROIT (AP) — Chrysler Group LLC has suspended nine workers for allegedly drinking and smoking marijuana before their shifts at a Michigan plant.
Detroit television station WJBK-TV aired a story about the workers at the Trenton Engine Plant last week. Chrysler says it identified the workers using the station's video.

Health care giant Johnson & Johnson said Tuesday that its second-quarter profit fell nearly 20 percent due to restructuring, recall and litigation costs and higher spending on overhead and research. The results still topped Wall Street expectations.
The maker of Band-Aids, biologic medicines and birth control pills said its net income was $2.

MILWAUKEE, Wis. (AP) — Fueled by its first U.S. sales increase in more than four years, Harley-Davidson's second-quarter profit more than doubled, easily beating Wall Street's expectations.
The iconic motorcycle maker also boosted its shipment forecast for 2011 and its shares rose $1.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — The personal computer industry needs a jumpstart — and it's counting on a rescue from emerging markets and a late-to-the-party push into tablet computers.
The U.S. and European PC markets have entered a dangerous new phase: Fewer people are buying new PCs because of economic anxiety, market saturation and the rise of seductive new gadgets such as Apple's iPad.